Deep Breath
by Olamach
Summary: Robbie gets into an accident and wakes up in another reality. All seems well at first until he begins to notice that this reality has his closest friends as his enemies, and he as his own biggest enemy.


**This was originally Rade but I've given up on that. I'm not really sure of pairings but I can say Robbie is the main character. **

**R&R**

Darkness.

A never ending, deep, void of nothing, and he's falling, through the blackness. Then again is he truly falling – he could very well be twirling, spinning, gravitating.

Robbie flexes his fingers and pushes his hands in front of him as if to stop his impact with the ground. What ground? His heart is in his throat and he can't breathe. He's certain he has soiled himself.

He can't really remember why he's falling, spinning, twirling – whatever. It's a void in his mind that he couldn't fill even though he's been falling for what feels like an eternity.

A light appears far ahead in the blackness. It's a speck of flickering light that grows brighter and larger the more he falls… and falls. Then he's bursting through it and he hits something that gives him temporary breath and then takes it away.

He thought there would be light, no, there is only darkness again. This darkness though is speckled with a million little lights; he realizes a moment later he's looking at a sky, that those tiny speckles are actually tiny stars.

He blinks and air returns to him, filling his lungs.

"I've found you." Came a voice from directly before him, it's familiar but oddly different, he instantly sits up. Around him his slightly tilted and spinning and he's surrounded by trees. For some reason he was certain that wasn't right, but he couldn't really put his finger on why. "I've taken care of the Torkens; did you take care of Masmara?"

The voice's owner is well hidden in the blackened shadows, only thing visual is a slim feminine silhouette of a person wearing a hood. Though odd, he's not afraid only perturbed.

"W- Who are you?" Robbie asked, his face a mask of uncertainty and confusion.

The hooded person is silent and even in the blackness he can see the body stiffen. "There isn't much time for games… the others wait."

"Games…" He mumbled. This was no game to him; he's in the middle of a forest talking to a cloaked figure after falling down a black hole for, hours? Days? Years? "I'm not… I'm really getting freaked out now." He attempted to get up but his body felt abnormally heavy. He looked down at himself discovering he was wearing of vest of shiny silver metal. Odd. "Why am I wearing this?" Panic has tainted his vocals and made his voice grow high and strained.

"Freaked out… Did you hurt your head?" The cloaked person asked dryly, and he instantly remembered why the voice was so familiar, and who it likely belonged to. "I mean… should I call for help?" The voice lost all of its bravado and lowered a bit.

Robbie hands fumbled with the latches he had found on the armor vest. "Really Jade, why are you guys always playing tricks on me? What is this?" He was whining and fumbling with the latches. He'd figured it all out, he was being pranked.

"I thought you were unaware of who I am?" She takes a hesitant half-step towards him. "Why would I play a trick on you?" She comes further into the clearing and removes her hood, her eyes reflect almost eerily in the moon light bathed clearing.

He frowns at her, and the latches come apart and the armor clanks to the ground with a heavy thud. He can breathe again, and he can stand. "Thank goodness…" He moaned and stretched. "Whose idea is this?"

"Why did you remove your armor – it's still dangerous out here." She isn't very worried sounding he notes. "When did you grow so skinny…?" She asked slowly her intense gaze going up and down his body.

Robbie blushed, Jade had never looked at him like that before. No one had. "I've… I've always been skinny. Come on Jade really, it's cold out here."

She frowns at him again her brows lowering dramatically; she then shrugs off her cloak leaving her in only a dark sleeveless tunic and loose fitting slacks, she hands him the cloak. "If you're cold…"

Robbie blinked, then frowned a little, befuddled. "Wouldn't you be cold…I mean, really what is going on here?"

Her eyes narrow, and her head tilts a little. "You are very much aware that I won't get cold. Take it if you're cold."

"Why wouldn't you get cold?" Not reaching for the cloak he wraps his arms around himself, and shifts a little from foot to foot.

Her mouth parts and her eyes dart upwards briefly, sighing. "There is truly something wrong with him." This is said barely above a whisper and to herself. She returns her cloak to her form and turns her attention back to him. "With you like this… I suppose I will have to take you home."

She looks at him blankly for a while, her arms over her chest, and her foot lightly tapping. "Follow me, Robert." In one graceful movement the girl turns and heads back into the blackened woods.

"What…" He quickly chases after her, his clunky boots too heavy for his weak ankles making him stumble over the roots and shrubs. "Why did you call me Robert? Robert's my dad… I'm Robbie."

She comes to a stop and turns to face him, he too busy trying not to fall almost walks into her. They are inches apart.

"Yes, your father is Robert. I do not understand this…'selective' memory loss you have." It's hard to really see her, but he can feel her breath on his face. "Why would I call you Robbie?"

"Selective…" He mumbles stumbling backwards. "I mean Robbie's my name… Seriously Jade, you're really scaring me."

"I'm scaring you?" Her tone is oddly reproachful. "Just follow me and all will be… explained."

He nods even though he's certain she can't really see him, and she turns and begin her track onwards. He trips and falls countless times, and only follows by her by the noise her foot falls makes, which isn't much. The last time he falls, he is helped up by an abnormally warm hand around his wrist and from then on Jade leads him through the black dense woods.

It feels like hours later they break out of the brush and onto a road. A couch is waiting – as in a horse and buggy. Robbie is flabbergasted, before he could say anything, a little boy with shaggy brown hair jumps off the front of it holding up a lantern.

The boy bows to Robbie, who is seriously marveling over the lengths his friends will go to play a trick on him. "Is this something for Sikowitz?" He asks no one in particular.

The boy gives him an uncertain look once he rises and his brown irises go to Jade.

"Something happened…" She grits out. "Now you see why I called you, I think he has a sort of memory loss. We need to get back to the castle as soon as possible."

"You are to be harshly rebuked for your actions then." The young boy speaks his voice bland.

"I am well aware of that, Child. Now, leaving now would be in our best interests."

The boy nodded and looked back at Robbie, and bowed once more and extended his hand for the back covered portion of the buggy. "Sire…"

Robbie lightly shook his head. "Really, you guys are too much." He mumbled and climbed into the back of the couch, hoping if he went along with it, it would be over quickly. He waits on Jade to join him in the couch, but the girl doesn't even when the buggy begins to move.

Robbie lightly shrugs. He listens to the horse hooves on the cobbled road, he thinks it's a horse, he hadn't really seen one. He refuses to strain him mind over it, and soon he's asleep.

(O)

He wakes up when the couch comes to a stop, he hears voices and a second later Jade's face appears through the flap. She gives him a long look before moving her head back out and pulling back the flap. He guesses that means get out.

He is greeted by a castle. The entirety of it is too large to be witnessed from his location, but it is certainly something he had only seen on TV and in books. He is being lead up a set of black granite flawless stairs by Jade before he could gawk more.

Men dressed in dark cloaks similar to Jade are near the large carved wooden doors bow to him before opening them.

Robbie begins to think he's dreaming. Realizing that made a lot of sense then an elaborate trick, he accepts that as fact and let the realization ease his growing panic.

"I'm dreaming…" He mumbles to ease himself further, out of the corner of his eye he notices Jade gives him an odd look.

They enter through the massive frame and into what Robbie believes is the world's largest foyer. The floor is a shiny white marble along with the long spiral staircase to his left. The walls are covered with paintings of people who to Robbie look very important. There are also a few naked sculptures.

They enter further into the room slowly, just as another humongous set of doors open straight ahead. His dad walks out, flanked by three other men who bow briefly to him.

"Dad…?" Robbie asks uncertainly, his eyes traveling over his father's black armor clad body. His dad is an accountant with and sever allergy to… everything, this isn't normal. Diffidently dreaming…

His dad isn't happy, he's fuming. His face is red and a vein has appeared in his forehead, it looks unhealthy to Robbie. His father's dark eyes are trained on only one being. Jade.

Robbie's confusion only grows when he risks a glance towards Jade. Her head is bowed, making her long brown hair cover her face; her cloak is gone and with the added light Robbie notices a black leather loose fitting collar around her neck. Her hands are in fists at her sides.

He had been so busy studying Jade he hadn't notices his father's approach until the man's hand connected with Jade's face. The girl stumbled backwards only a little.

"What happened to him?" His father's voice boomed out over the room.

Robbie was stunned still, his eyes wide. "What…Dad!" He couldn't believe what he had just witnessed.

He was ignored as his father pointed an enraged finger towards Jade. "What happened, demon?"

Head still bowed the girl answered. "I'm not really certain." Her fists shook only a little. "We were tracking the…Torkens. We also ran into Masmara and Robert thought it would be a good idea if we took on different opponents. He went after Masmara while I handled the Torkens; we were only separated for a few hours… I found him like this. I think he has memory loss."

"You think…?" The man hissed.

"Yes, Sire."

The man turned his enraged gaze to Robbie, who was actually shaking with fear. "You don't remember who you are?"

Robbie gulped. "I do remember who I am… I just…"

The man's face twisted into a look of disgust. "My son never stammers." He turns to look back at the quiet girl. "What am I to do with a son like this? I can smell the coward on him!"

"I… I thought your healer could fix him. I…"

"Mardo, Blison, take my son's dog to level 'D'." Two men stepped from behind his father.

"I can escort myself." Jade gritted not letting them touch her; she began towards the wooden doors, flanked by the men.

"What are you going to do to her?" Robbie asked hesitantly. "It's not her fault really, what ever happened to me."

"You need not worry what will happen to her, son." His father, the man who looked like his father assured, "Now to take you to the healer's quarters."

The hunched over woman with a hump in her back, and stringy grey air examines every part of him. She makes him drink odd things and chew on leaves. He asks a thousand question, which seems to amuse the woman before anything goes near his mouth.

"You should forget who you are more often." The old woman chuckles oddly. "You are a much better person."

He wonders what that means.

After the woman is done, fumbling with him a woman with long curly hair with thin features, wearing a purple and gold dress enters the room. He instantly jumps off the wooden table and engulfs his mother in a hug.

"Oh…" The woman says softly. "How long has it been since my son has given me a hug? He was only few summers old when he told me a man doesn't hug his mother."

Robbie gently pulls away and frowns. His mother smiles at him and pats his cheek. "I was told something happened to you." She looks him over and quickly looks relieved. "You are fine."

"I'm not!" He tells her. "I'm so confused, but I think this is a dream. So I should just go with it right?"

She frowns at him. "I do not understand."

"Of course not…" Robbie mumbles under his breath. "I'm tired."

She looks troubled but gives him a calm smile. "You do not remember the location of your room. I will show you."

(O)

Robbie wakes up underneath a thick yellow blanket, his hair is plastered to his forehead, clothes damp with sweat. His eyes open and he is greeted with a carved ceiling, he groans. He hadn't a woken from this nightmare yet.

He angrily kicks the blanket off him and sits up, he gasps. Standing by his window is Jade, and she is looking out of the window in his room. From his position he could make out a bruised cheek, when she turned from hearing his gasp he got a full view of her face.

A cut over her eyebrow, a swollen lip, and a black eye, they all marred her face. The girl bowed briefly, her upper body bending forward.

His mouth had gone completely dry and without really remembering when had sprung from the bed to stand before her. "God Jade, what happened?" He whispered/shrieked.

She barely bats an eyelash as he reaches out for her swollen cheek. He catches himself and his hand falls back to his side.

"Then you are continuing to be like this." It's an odd thing to say in his opinion. Her eyes leave him and focus on something behind him. "They brought breakfast to your room, since you slept in so late."

Robbie reluctantly takes his eyes off her and turns to look at the tray. A bowl of fruit, milk, and some type of meat were laid out on the tray.

His stomach growled in response of seeing the food and moved towards it and popped a blueberry into his mouth, then another, and another. He then remembered Jade. He turned back around finding the girl once again focused on outside.

"Would you like any?" He asks.

She turns to look at him again, her eyes slightly widened. "What was that…?"

"Food, do you want any?"

She licks her lips almost involuntarily. "No… Thank you?" He wondered why it came out like a question.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

(O)

"…These are the gardens…" Jade watched him as he gawked. "Down that way is yours – you have a maze garden." She coughed to get his attention. "That concludes the tour of the castle. Is there anything that you remember?"

Robbie only shook his head. "I don't, and I think all this would be hard to forget. This place has everything except electricity, cell phones, and computers."

"We have electricity." She informs watching him intently. "In the cities, they regularly use and depend on electricity."

"There are cities?" He almost yells. "You have cars too, right?"

She nods.

"Then why did we have a horse and buggy the other night."

She frowns. "There was no horse… never mind it. Are you hungry?" It had only been a few hours but her face was mostly completely healed. Robbie ignored it as being an odd dream thing.

He's starving. "No, I'm not hungry."

"Sir Robert!" A short man balding man shuffled out of the backdoors of the castle and towards them. The overweight man was out of breath when he reached them. "Princess is here to see you. She heard about your 'accident' and is most worried."

"Princess…" Robbie wondered bewilderedly.

"You must come now she is requesting your presence." The man takes hold of Robbie's wrist and begins leading him away.

Robbie notices Jade isn't follow and digs his heels into the ground stopping himself from being dragged. "Are you not coming?" He asked her.

"No, your princess is afraid of me. I better stay here."

"Afraid of you, why would she be?"

A smirk actually appears on her face and for the first time he notices abnormally large canines in her mouth. "She is afraid of what I am."

She has Robbie's complete attention now. "What you are?"

She nods.

Who else would his twisted mind decide is a princess besides Tori? He really should have honestly seen it coming a mile away. Tori had always reminded him a princess in an odd way anyway.

"You are fine." Her dress is very pretty; it's a pale yellow and goes good with her complexion. It's really long and fitting and with her hair up in those odd complicated braids she looks like a, well… princess. She rises from the chair she is seated in and hugs him.

Now, he's been hugged by Tori before, but never like this. This was much more than a friendly hug.

She quickly pulls away at his lack of response. "I'm sorry." She apologizes sincerely. "They told me you have memory loss. I bet you think I'm just a silly girl." She actually blushes.

"I… uh, no…" He's not really sure what the right thing to say was. "I don't think you're silly at all."

She looks content with that.

"Oh, thank goodness. I'm Tori!" She holds out her hand in greeting. "Well, Victoria, Princess Victoria from North Kingdom."

Robbie quickly takes her hand not wanting her to feel self-conscious. "Robbie… I don't remember who I'm supposed to be really…"

She looks at him sadly. "That must be awful." She looks genuinely troubled. "You don't remember anything at all?"

"That's the thing… I remember everything and everyone. It's just all different how I remember it." He felt like he was making no sense.

"Different how exactly?"

They ended up walking through the garden talking about what he remembered and how he remembered things.

"You have a professor who is that eccentric?" Tori laughs when he tells her about his teacher Sikowitz. "It's hard to believe an educator could behave in a way." Robbie nods as she laughs more. Then she looks at him. "I'm starting to believe your stories Robert… Robbie, you do seem quite, actually very much different."

He wanted to ask how, but a few cloaked beings walk by and Tori stiffened.

"Why do you allow those vile creatures into your kingdom?" Her words are filled with disgust.

Robbie's confused. "Who, are you talking about?" He follows the cloaked figures with his eyes.

"The creatures..." She frowns at him. "Have they truly not told you about a threat amongst your walls? You have one that follows you like a shadow."

"You mean Jade?" He asked.

"Yes, she is one of them."

Jade's a creature? "She's a threat? She's seems alright to me."

"Yes and no. They aren't a threat because of their collars, if not for those they would be merciless killers of humans, but your family enslaved most of them a century ago. She hates you with every fiber of her being, and only tolerates you because there are no other choices for her."

Robbie looks uncertain and Tori notices.

"A rouge band of them slayed my family when I was very young, leaving only me and my sister. I'm a little biased, I'm sorry." She bits her lip.

"No it's…" This dream had turned into a nightmare. Creatures… "It's understandable I guess."

They continued walking around the maze, both of them in their own thoughts. When movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, a siren blared a second later. He looked around frantic and confused.

"A breech," came the whisper from his side as Tori pressed against him.

A second later there was a man before them, and they both stumbled backwards and away, falling to the ground. The man had jumped clean over the hedges and landed with ease. He quickly straightened himself emerald eyes on Tori, ignoring Robbie completely.

Realizing this Robbie quickly turned and shoved at Tori. "Run…" He yelled. She hesitated only for a minute before quickly scrambling to her feet and darting towards the maze exit.

The man's eyes narrowed and he moved towards her at a burry speed, Robbie wasn't really sure how but he intercepted, blocking the man's progress by appearing in front of him. The man glowered and raised a fist, and when it connected with Robbie, it literally sent him flying through the air and smashing through hedges.

Robbie was beginning to doubt his theory about it being a dream as pain assaulted his body when he finally stopped. Dark unconsciousness cloaked him.

A never ending, deep, void of nothing, and he's falling, through the blackness. Then again is he truly falling – he could very well be twirling, spinning, gravitating.

Robbie flexes his fingers and pushes his hands in front of him as if to stop his impact with the ground. What ground? His heart is in his throat and he can't breathe. He's certain he has soiled himself.

He can't really remember why he's falling, spinning, twirling – whatever. It's a void in his mind that he couldn't fill even though he's been falling for what feels like an eternity.

Then it hit him like a ton of bricks, as he blankly stared above him at the black horizon through trees, hundreds of stars above him. His body felt broken, everything in his body hurt. He had fallen, off a cliff.

They were hiking and he was fooling around very close to the cliff's edge with Cat and Tori. He had slipped and fallen. It was a long drop and he was happy to be alive.

Rustling of underbrush and twigs snapping made him turn his head to his left; an unfocused light was heading his way. It flashed over him, blinding him.

**R&R**


End file.
